Historic racing
Historic racing is one of the fastest growing motorsports world wide. There are different car categories, dated back to racecars from the 1920´s. In 1982 FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) introduced Group A Touring cars. This group are based on highly modified standard cars. Today historic races are organized all over the world, from sprint races of 30 min to 24 hour races.
The car and TWR´s history
Our Jaguar XJS V12 is built with greatest respect to the original cars and TWR, and we put our honor to pay extreme attentions to details and the original FIA Homologation papers. Our dedication is that this is to be the best exact and true copy of the original Group A TWR cars from 1984. This is our tribute to the successful history of Jaguar and TWR.
Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) was founded in 1976 in Kidlington near Oxford England. They worked with different car makers before they started with Jaguar XJS in 1982. In the period 1982 to 1984 TWR build 7 of these cars. Car number 5 was built LHD. The reason was that it would be an advantage at the Australian tracks that mostly were “left turn tracks”, to have better weight distribution in the turns. TRW took part in races all over the world with very good results. In 1984 the TWR team won the ETCC (European Touring Car Championship), and they also won the 24h race at Spa in Belgium. In 1985 they won the James Hardie 1000, Australias most prestigious race.
TRW did also build and run Jaguars group C initiativ XJR-9 for Le Mans, where they also had great success and many victories.
The main competitors for the TWR XJS was the Rover Vitesse, also built by TRW, the surprisingly fast Volvo 240 Turbo and the BMW 635CSI.
Car spec
Engine: 5300 ccm V12 Naturally aspirated
Effect: 490 hp 550 Nm
Weight: 1450 kg
Acceleration: 0-160 km/h: 10 s
Top speed: 300 km/h
Tyre: Front – 275/625-17 / Rear – 300/625-17
Rim: Front – 11x17 / Rear – 12x17
READ MORE BELOW THE PICTURES
Mobeck Tekniske is constructing, producing and building the complete racecar. This is a true copy of Tom Walkinshaw`s Gr.A Jaguar from 1984.
The extreme number of details that are unique for this car is countless. In Historic racing the cars have to be built to exact the same standard they had back then, without use of modern technology. In this case it demands hundreds of hours in research among different sources and a lot of one-off parts. Ole-Martin Mobeck is a multitalented constructor and car builder and have the skills and tools to draw parts, get them 3D printed in polymere, and tested at the real car before production. E.g sand moulded parts as the exhaust manifolds, the oil pan etc.
To start the project we searched for a donor vehicle for some time. A XJS chassis without engine was found in Stockholm, Sweden. Mobeck took the 1600 km drive to pick up the donor car. The car was dismanteled for everything and the it was taken to Oslo to acid stripping of paint, underbody treatment, glue and rust. After the stripping it is easy to see every condition at the metal parts, and it makes the work with cutting, modification and welding much easier and cleaner. The welds are also much better due to less pollution from paint, rust and so on.
A big part of the hours in this building process is research around what modifictions they originally did to make it a racecar. We have traveled several times to see the original cars and taken measures and pictures of many details, and some we have found in books. Alan Scotts book have been a lot of help to us. We have even had mail-contact with several of the people that drove and built these in 1982-1986. We whish to thank everyone of those helpful people to sort out some of the details, and we understand and respect the loyalty you have to safeguard the legacy of the original project cars.
A group-A car was not supposed to be heavily modified as they should have the original chassis, the original suspension, valve lift and manifolds. These rules was implemented to bring more car manufacturers into Group-A, and the basic idea was that “standard” cars could compete with each other. A good plan in theory.
When we started the detailed research we found that the TWR Jaguar probably is one of the most modified Group-A cars ever build. The TWR team did interpret the rules with great creativity. The modifying job on a good chassis, that we thought should be a few hundred hours, turned out to be many many times more. We aim for perfection, and that ment that every modification they did according to their creative interpretation, we also do to make it historically correct.
Racecars normal have additional welding at every joint sheet for extra strenght. To fit the larger wheels, air-jacks, special fixture points for suspension, a total of 4 oil-coolers and a larger radiator, we had to make a lot of changes. The Homologation papers for the race car from 1984 also give us a lot of details that makes it easier to build a 100% car.
The suspension is heavily reinforced and new fixations made after old pictures and papers.
The safety roll-cage are made to be so historically correct as possible and at the same time be FIA approved.
A lot of brackets are removed, new ones fitted, aerodynamic modifications, and an enormous job preparing for the paint job. The result are a painted chassis with mounted liveries ready for the show room.
All the suspension and axle parts are readymade, and mounted, special brakes are fitted together with special rims, newly made gearbox and slip differential are in place. All moving parts everywhere are new or made new and reinforced (racing forced?) as they where back then. All the coolers (oil, water, gearbox, axle) are in place.
The engine is finished and tuned at almost 500hp and 550 Nm. (click for video) The job now is to complete the brake lines and putting the engine into the car. Then do the rest of the wiring and hoses. We do not rush the finish line of the build, because there is no shortcuts possible when you build a true racecar. Still attention to every detail, so we can be ready for racing in the end of the autumn 2021. Follow us at Facebook or Instagram, or be in touch with us by mail.
